Sharpe's Havoc (2003)

Sharpe's Havoc: Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Oporto is the seventh historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 2003.

The story is set largely in Portugal during General Arthur Wellesley's Oporto Campaign in 1809, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

Plot summary

During a general British and Portuguese retreat from the French after the First Battle of Porto, Captain Hogan orders Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and his men to help find and escort to safety 19-year-old Englishwoman Kate Savage, the daughter of a recently deceased prominent port merchant. For some unknown reason, she ran away from her home in Oporto. Hogan also tells Sharpe to "keep a close eye" on Colonel James Christopher, who has been staying with the Savages and was the one who requested help in retrieving her. After Hogan leaves, however, Christopher dismisses Sharpe and his men.

Sharpe and his detachment, orphaned from the 95th Rifles, are trapped when the French seize Oporto, but are unexpectedly saved by a small detachment of Portuguese soldiers led by Lieutenant Jorge Vicente, a law student in civilian life. Despite his hatred of lawyers, Sharpe gradually comes to respect Vincente.

Christopher was sent by the British Foreign Office to Portugal to evaluate the situation in Portugal. He has instead decided to use the situation to enrich himself. French Marshal Soult would like to declare himself King of Portugal, but his royal ambition does not sit well with many of his officers. Christopher contacts and encourages the potential mutineers, but intends to betray them to Soult. Just in case the French do not conquer Portugal, he also "marries" Kate in a sham ceremony for her substantial inheritance, despite already having a wife in England.

Seen openly collaborating with the French, he assures Sharpe that he is simply on a secret mission for Britain. Sharpe is suspicious of his motives, but Christopher shows him his orders from General Cradock, the commander of the British forces in southern Portugal. Christopher orders Sharpe to wait for him, for perhaps a week, and leaves Kate under his protection. Christopher then negotiates with the French, offering the identities of the mutineers and other information in return for a monopoly on the port trade in Oporto. Christopher's Portuguese servant deserts him and tells Sharpe that Christopher has betrayed Sharpe to the French as a token of good faith. Fortunately, Sharpe defeats the French detachment sent to kill him and his men. The riflemen escape and seek to rejoin the main British force.

Sharpe spots three barges and a small boat overlooked by the French, who have burned all the boats they can find. He makes contact with a senior British officer, who is delighted by the news of the boats. General Wellesley, Cradock's replacement, has been seeking a way across the Douro River. The British send a division and artillery across to occupy a seminary dominating Soult's lines of communications. The French make desperate, but futile attempts to seize it. The British position is far too strong, and the French are slaughtered.

In the aftermath of the British victory and the French retreat, Sharpe informs Wellesley and Foreign Office dignitary Lord Pumphrey of Christopher's treason. He is ordered to dispose of Christopher before he can divulge more secrets.

Portuguese forces cut off one retreat route, forcing the French to abandon their heavy equipment and plunder as they flee along a mountain road. Sharpe, Vicente, and some of their men race ahead of the French, seeking Christopher. The French manage to capture both bottleneck bridges from Portuguese irregulars and escape, but Sharpe finds and kills Christopher (and one of his riflemen who deserted) and rescues Kate.

Characters in Sharpe's Havoc

Richard Sharpe, a lieutenant in the 95th Rifles

Patrick Harper, a sergeant in the Rifles, Sharpe's right-hand man

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher, a turncoat Foreign Office spy who wants to sell military secrets in return for favours from the conquering French

Captain Michael Hogan, an Irish engineering officer who serves Wellesley as his spy master

Jorge Vicente, a young, inexperienced Portuguese lieutenant

Major Dulong, a brave French opponent of Sharpe

Lord Pumphrey, an agent of the British Foreign Office

Kate Savage, teenage daughter of an English port maker, raised in Portugal

Historical figures

Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Marshal of France, commander of the French army in Portugal

Arthur Wellesley, new head of the British forces in the peninsula

Edward Paget, British commanding general during the Second Battle of Porto

Major General Rowland "Daddy" Hill, a brigade commander during the battle. Later appears in Sharpe's Eagle.

Allusions to other Sharpe novels

Turncoat British officers are recurring antagonists in several of Cornwell's later-published Sharpe novels, especially those taking place during the early phase of the Peninsular War (notably Sharpe's Trafalgar and Sharpe's Prey). In addition to a general opportunism—seeking personal gain amid the chaos of war—what each of these characters have in common is the conviction that the French under Napoleon will be the inevitable victors in the war and the smartest thing to do is side with them in any way possible. Such belief was apparently widespread during the early years of the war, given the French's series of victorious battles against the Austrians and Russians, and the small size of the British expeditionary force in comparison to the French armies it confronted.

Lord Pumphrey re-appears after his introduction in Sharpe's Prey. His internal thoughts confirm that he ordered the murders of Sharpe's love interest from that novel, Astrid, and her father, which Sharpe himself will not discover until the events of Sharpe's Fury which takes place two years later.

In the subsequent novel, Sharpe's Escape, Kate has married Jorge and given birth to their daughter.